A low rumbling sound filled the air and woke Rooster up with a start. He squinted against the bright light that filtered through the thin layer of ice which surrounded their hideout and shook his head to clear the sleep away. The brusque movement apparently woke Ice against whose chest Bradley's head had been leaning just a moment before, because he blinked groggily. Maverick, who sat curled around Ice's right side, didn't react.

"Morning," Ice whispered softly while he stretched his legs out (in the little space they had).

"I think they are looking for us," Rooster answered instead of returning the greetings. The low rumbling sound of a helicopter fluctuated between louder and softer, as if it was flying in circles. Ice frowned and listened for a few seconds, before he nodded.

"Yeah, I hear what you mean."

"What do we do?" Rooster whispered back.

"We don't have any food and Maverick needs medical attention asap so I think we'd better go to their base right now, despite of the chopper," Ice said, repeating like he had done the evening before that their best plan was to go to the runway they had bombed to find something to get them in the air and back home. Rooster sighed, but nodded.

When the rumbling sound started to get away again, he detached himself from Ice's side, shook the emergency blanket from his shoulders and slowly started to shuffle out of the little hole they had made in the snow besides the tree. He faintly heard Ice waking Maverick while he sneaked around to grab all their stuff and drank a bit of water. When he saw a fluff of black hair appear he hurried back to the tree to help Maverick out.

"Yeah, yeah, I can do that, don't worry," Maverick said and he almost sounded like his usual self. It didn't fool Bradley in the slightest (in fact, he tried to pull up one eyebrow like Ice used to do), but it did relieve his heart a bit. Maverick shuffled further and sat down heavily, his breath clouding the air in short and pained bursts.

"You need to leave that other brow down, you know?" Maverick tried to joke, but it sounded rather defeated. Still, Bradley chuckled softly.

"I know, Ice is way better in it than I am," Bradley said and he smiled.

"Way better in what?" the man in question asked as he too grabbed his little flacon filled with water.

"Well, you know. Basically everything," Bradley said semi-seriously while Maverick just smiled. Ice rolled his eyes but smiled too. He made sure that Maverick had drunk some too before squatting down so Maverick could climb (begrudgingly) on his back.

"This is killing your back, Ice, I can walk," he said while he let his interlocked hands hang against Ice's chest.

"You walking will actually kill you, Mav," Ice deadpanned and Mav grumbled but for once didn't reply.

"And besides, Bradley is wearing all my equipment, you are hardly more than I usually carry," Ice said while Bradley shook with his two backpacks (and his suit full of stuff) as a demonstration.

"Oh, okay," Maverick said while he laid his head on Ice's shoulder, seemingly succumbing to his fate.

They took up the trek towards the military airport in silence. Bradley tried to focus on putting one foot in front of the other instead of worrying about the absurdity of their plan, but it was hard. Instead, he tried to distract himself by worrying about Ice and Mav, which was really easy, but not very useful either. When he glanced beside him and saw the strained face of his father (he actually had to look up for that since Ice was walking on top of the snow while Roosters feet sank in it at least a dozen inches), he realized Ice had lied. Maverick was way heavier than Ice's normal load and all the stress of the evening before had taken a toll too (besides the fact that Ice clearly wasn't in his physical prime anymore).

"Do you want me to take him?" Bradley asked carefully when Ice almost stumbled (and after making sure Maverick was soundly asleep again). Ice, however, shook his head brusquely.

"I can do physical exertion, but if I give him to you his back will melt faster because you are warmer. Besides, when he is this close, keeping him frozen hardly cost any energy, while even the little bit of distance between me and you greatly enlarges that amount," Ice puffed.

"Oh," Bradley said, feeling very helpless.

They trudged further and further. Miraculously, the helicopter only flew over again once, and when it did, they hid under a large pine until it had gone away. After an hour or so, they had their first glimpse of the runway. Or more accurately, the smoke that was still rising from said runway. They had to cross at least a mile of snowy hills to get there, but to see (and smell) their destination freed stocks of energy Rooster didn't knew he had left. It seemed to help Ice too, since he mildly picked up the pace, carrying a determined look on his face.

When they finally ascended the last hill, Rooster beckoned Ice to stay where he was while he himself crawled on his belly to the top. From his hiding place behind a row of low bushes, he had a great overview over the destroyed base. Some people were walking around or trying to repair the runway, but on the whole, he found that the atmosphere was less panicked than he had expected. He grabbed his binoculars and thoroughly scanned the area, growing more worried by the second, until he spotted a particular aircraft. He rolled his eyes and chuckled softly by the irony of the universe.

When he had seen all there was to see, he quickly crawled back to Ice and Maverick, who had sat down under a large tree (and were so well hidden from sight that Rooster had to scan the hillside three times before he spotted them).

"The whole runway is ruined. People are trying to fix it but it's going slowly. There are destroyed aircraft standing around and it seems like a row of hangers got hit by the missiles. At the far end of the runway are some helicopters, but it is swarming with people over there. I saw no available aircraft besides those, except-" he paused a bit for dramatic effect and to lock eyes with Maverick, who had woken up and was looking the best he had in a day.

"a F-14," he finished his sentence and Maverick actually giggled, before clasping his hand to his mouth to muffle the sound.

"You're kidding," Ice said, but when Rooster shook his head, he too chuckled.

"We'll take that," he said with his signature shark like grin and a determined fire burning into his eyes. Rooster opened his mouth to tell them about the great logical flaw in this plan (that there were only two seats in a F-14), but he shut it quickly when he saw the hope returning to Mavericks eyes as well.

"We can probably better wait till dusk and hope fewer people will be walking around," Maverick said and Rooster nodded. Ice however, hesitated.

"I can hold onto my life for a few hours longer, Ice, I promise. Your crazy plan to freeze me has been working great so far, and if your body can keep your tumor from growing for two months by freezing it, it can keep me alive for a couple more hours too!" Maverick said and that convinced Ice enough for him to finally relax against the tree, shifting a bit to find a good position.

"He did what?" Bradley squeaked while staring at Ice with his mouth hanging on the floor. Maverick chuckled softly before curling around Ice once more.

"The doctors were amazed by it. It was still a scare, but his cancer could have been, or actually should have been, way way worse," he said while Ice nodded with a faraway look in his eyes. Bradley let out a sigh as he curled around his fathers as well.

"You must be so grateful for your superpowers then," he said as an afterthought while he forcibly tried to relax his muscles (and somewhat succeeded). The dead silence that followed, however, made him turn his head to look at the both of them in confusion.

"We never saw it that way, Bradley. I have wished I had been born normal at least a thousand times over the years. Other people can just cry, but my tear ducts freeze. Other people could get a hug no problem, but with me, everyone always shies away because I am too cold. Other people can just climb out of a depressing situation, while I literally freeze to death," Ice stated bitterly.

"I have hurt people, done some incredibly stupid and reckless things to not put stuff on fire. Besides, sexual activity was either rape or burning bedsheets," Maverick added while Bradley's eyes grew bigger and bigger.

"But, but now you're having it totally under control don't you?" Bradley stammered. He turned towards Ice.

"You literally saved Mav's life by freezing him. Oh and Phoenix' and Bob's too for that measure, by doing whatever you did," he rambled.

"I froze their canopy when they hit the water so it broke open," Ice mumbled, and even though Bradley's head reeled by that fact (at that distance? No wonder why he fell into a coma, using that much energy) he decided to ignore it for now.

"Besides, you made us a hiding place safe for heat detectors by freezing the stuff around it and made this trek ten times easier for you because you could walk on top of the snow instead of through it!" he whisper-shouted, getting increasingly more frustrated by the second. He therefore didn't give Ice time to answer and turned to Mav instead.

"Mav, you saved Ice by waking him up when he fell out of the sky, despite it being a thoroughly stupid and incredibly dangerous maneuver; you gave Ice the chance to save you by doing some magic shit while literally balancing on the brink of death and your coffee will never get cold!" he said and a brief silence fell upon them while Bradley regained his breath.

"Coffee?" Mav asked quizzically, but Bradley saw his little speech had landed nonetheless.

"Shut it, I had to make up a third example because an enumeration with two things is undeniably worse than one with three," he said while sending a faux angry look at their wide eyes.

"And besides, I wasn't even finished," he added when he saw Ice opening his mouth once more.

"Because despite all your magical struggles, despite having to hide your relationship for way too long while also trying to survive and thrive in the navy, you two managed to be the best parents a little boy could have ever dreamed of," he finished and to his surprise, he found that his cheeks were damp.

"We were?" Maverick asked softly, as if he was afraid Bradley was screwing with him (which, considering Bradley's behavior during the last twenty years, was not really a surprise, but it still hurt to see Mav that way).

"Off course you were," he said before diving into the hug Maverick beckoned for.

"I should have never left you," he mumbled into his father's shoulder.

"We should have never let you go, baby Goose," Maverick mumbled back.

"Imagine what a pilot you would have become, had it all worked out," Ice said wistfully.

"Not to say that you are bad, you surprise me with every hop you take, but we didn't gave you the change to fully realize your potential," he quickly added, but Bradley nodded.

"No, I understand now. Don't think, just do, right Mav?" he said while carefully loosening the hug so he could look at the other pilot as well.

"Well, actually, I think that might not be completely true," Maverick said.

"How so?" Ice asked (which surprised Bradley even more than exactly what Mav said) his wingman.

"Well, now Bradley has put it so clearly before us, I think we both are on the far end of the spectrum, which is thinking while you fly or not thinking while you fly, and succeeding because you literally freeze when you do not think and I burn when I do," he said with a frown.

"But anyone else shouldn't really be that far on the one end or the other. Maybe it's the best when you let yourself feel things, but also keep your mind straight headed so you don't do anything too stupid." Bradley's eyes grew big. It was like he finally found the thing he had been looking for his whole career. First when he tried to do everything by the book, think by every move and calculate any attack, but then also when he finally listened to Mav and Jake and just felt. He had missed some balance.

"That might be the smartest thing you've ever said, Mav," Ice teased, but Bradley could hear that he was genuinely impressed.

"Or you have finally reached my level of intelligence, ever thought about that?" Mav threw back immediately and Bradley laughed way too hard about that. He might be in enemy territory with no way of coming home (he had already decided he would give the RIO-seat in the F-14 to Ice), but at least he had his family back.